The present invention relates to a power transmission system, an IC card and an information communication system using an IC card, wherein commutation tickets, railway tickets, bus tickets, etc. to be used at wickets in railway stations or on buses will be replaced with IC cards, and when an IC card is made to pass a reader/writer, being provided at a wicket in a railway station or on a bus, with noncontact or in close proximity to it, power can be transmitted from the reader/writer to the IC card by radio.
It has been known that power can be supplied to an IC card from a power supply side by a noncontact method using rays of light or magnetic fields.
When commutation tickets, railway tickets, bus tickets, etc. to be used at wickets in railway stations or on buses will be replaced with IC cards, and when a user passes an IC card through a reader/writer provided at a wicket in a railway station or on a bus with noncontact, the distance between the IC card and the reader/writer may vary much. When the reader/writer is so adjusted that proper power can be transmitted from the reader/writer to the IC card when the distance between the IC card and the reader/writer is comparatively large, then in a case where the distance between the reader/writer and the IC card is small, excessive power may be transmitted from the reader/ writer to the IC card, which may cause a malfunction or breakage of the IC card.
In other words, in the prior art, careful consideration was not given to a point that proper power shall be stably transmitted to an IC card from a reader/ writer even though the distance between the IC card and the reader/writer may be largely varied.
Prior art in which it is intended to stably supply power from a reader/writer to an IC card even if the distance between the IC card and the reader/writer is largely varied is explained in Japanese Patents Laid-open No. Hei 7-85233 and Laid-open No. 9-62816.
In the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 7-85233, following are described: among noncontact type data carriers of electromagnetic coupling system, in the case of movable equipment having a function to be able to receive data including a control signal from fixed equipment, a rectifier circuit composed of a rectifier D1 and a capacitor C2, and a variable resistor element composed of a transistor T2, resistor R3 and resistor R4 being controlled by a DC voltage obtained from the rectifier circuit are connected to a receiving coil of the data carrier in parallel, and an excess power will be consumed in the variable resistor elements. Further it is described in the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-85233 that a signal detector circuit composed of a rectifier D2, a resistor R1 and a capacitor C3 which detects an amplitude-modulated wave superimposed on a AC voltage induced in the receiving coil and transmits the detected data to a main circuit of the data carrier as an input signal, and an amplitude modulator circuit which receives the output signal of the main circuit of the data carrier for switching a transistor T1, and being composed of the transistor T1 which transmits data from the data carrier to the fixed equipment, a capacitor C4 and a resistor R2 are connected to the receiving coil of the data carrier in parallel. In the prior art as mentioned in the above, a resonant circuit is not formed in the receiving coil of the data carrier, so that in a case where the distance between the transmitting coil on the fixed side and the receiving coil on the data carrier side is large, an enough voltage is not induced in the receiving coil and it is made difficult to obtain the power required by the main circuit of the data carrier. There is also another problem in the prior art. Since a half-wave rectifier is adopted in the prior art, a large ripple is produced, which requires a large smoothing capacity; therefore, it is made difficult to incorporate a capacitor of a large capacity in a data carrier in miniaturizing it.
It is described in the Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 9-62816 that a receiving signal level of a resonance circuit of an antenna for transmitting and receiving data is detected and the quality factor Q of the antenna resonance circuit is varied by changing the variable resistor element according to the detected voltage in order to adjust a receiving signal level to a desirable value.
In these prior art, since a variable resistor element is directly connected to a receiving antenna in parallel, there is a problem in that the temperature rise in the variable resistor element is large and the size of a pressure protection circuit becomes large.